Opposition MPs warned Government yesterday that it ran the risk of being lambasted in the Wall Street Journal over its failure to insist on a separate chairman and chief executive officer at the Bermuda Monetary Authority (BMA).

Cheryl Ann Lister ? wife of Education Minister Terry Lister ?currently occupies both posts, receiving a "mammoth salary", according to Shadow Finance Minister Patricia Gordon-Pamplin.

She told the House of Assembly that failure to separate the two positions could see the likes of the Wall Street Journal investigating the Island's financial regulations and leave Bermuda with "egg on our faces".

Dr. Grant Gibbons, former United Bermuda Party leader, told MPs. "I can just see a mischievous journalist going after that in a major way."

The criticism came as the Bermuda Monetary Authority Act 2006 - which passed its third reading yesterday - was debated in the in the House. The proposed law seeks to tighten up financial procedures on the Island and make it easier for whistleblowers to expose wrongdoing.

Mrs. Gordon-Pamplin said the legislation should be used to segregate the roles of BMA chairman and CEO immediately, adding that a Government committee had recommended just that.

"The Government need to be definitive," she said. "They need to bite the bullet. It's just too airy-fairy. It makes no sense.

"Why are we dancing around this very sound recommendation? I don't know. I have my suspicions in terms of why we are in the situation that we are in but I don't want for my suspicions to form the basis of what might be deemed to be fact."

Mrs. Gordon-Pamplin said she refused to believe that the Government couldn't find two suitable candidates within the financial services sector.

Dr. Gibbons said he was concerned that a journalist from the international press would investigate the BMA and report: "The BMA isn't set up properly. There's no separation between the chairman and the CEO. And by the way, the chairman also happens to be the wife of a Cabinet Minister."

He added: "When you put that on the front page of a major financial newspaper it can be used against Bermuda."

He said Mrs. Lister was being "set up to be put on the front page of the paper for some of these issues".

Dr. Gibbons urged Finance Minister Paula Cox: "Please deal with this. Please address the situation because sooner or later it's going to come back to haunt us somehow and none of us want that."

Ms Cox said she was pleased with the comments because she had expected the Opposition to be against such separation.

She said the Government did intend to separate the positions but could not while somebody was already doing both jobs. Government needed to ensure it was not putting itself in an injurious position from a legal or constitutional perspective, she added.

But Mrs. Gordon-Pamplin said that if the legislation had been used originally to allow the two roles to be fused it could also be used to bring about separation.